News | Real Estate

Tuesday 23rd May 2006

Corporate and commercial law firm SJ Berwin LLP has advised PD Ports on its planning application, recently submitted, for a £300m deep sea container terminal at Teesport, which could create up to 5,500 jobs for the Tees Valley.

PD Ports spent months preparing the submission, which included detailed documents and drawings and a 500-plus page environmental statement, which is now being considered by Redcar and Cleveland Council as local planning authority.

SJ Berwin is advising on the planning application for the landside operations, which comprise a 55 hectare container handling area behind a 1,000 m quay face with an inter-modal rail terminal, cargo handling equipment, lorry parking, offices and gatehouses.  SJ Berwin also advised on the Environmental Impact Assessment.  London based law firm Rees and Freres are advising on the relevant parliamentary orders.  These include a Harbour Revision Order, which will allow the creation of new berths and the dredging of the river channel to accommodate the increased ship sizes and container vessel flow coming directly into Teesport from the Far East, as well as an order under the Transport and Works Act 1992.

If successful, it is believed that the new facility, known as the Northern Gateway Container Terminal, would increase the North East’s economic output by millions of pounds and create thousands of jobs.

 PD plans to have the first phase of the Northern Gateway Container Terminal operational by 2010.

SJ Berwin planning partner Duncan Field commented, “This is an exciting and extremely significant project for the North East.  We are delighted to be involved and now that the formal application has been lodged we look forward to advising our client through the next stage of delivering the Northern Gateway.”   Duncan is leading the team at SJ Berwin which also includes Senior Associate, Daniel Farrand.

• On 1 June 2005 SJ Berwin LLP, an English limited liability partnership, took over the business of the SJ Berwin general partnership.  SJ Berwin LLP or an affiliated undertaking has an office in Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich and Paris.
• SJ Berwin LLP was named 'UK Firm of the Year' at the 2005 Legal Week Awards on 30 November.  The award recognised SJ Berwin's five years of international expansion and its involvement in a series of high quality deals.
• SJ Berwin's Real Estate Division totals 118 staff of which 22 are partners (with 3 additional tax partners) and 50 assistants, encompassing the disciplines of Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning & Environment, Property Litigation, Real Estate Funds and Tax.  There is an increasing emphasis on cross firm activity with related areas of Banking and Corporate.  The division acts for blue chip clients including British Land, Royal Bank of Scotland, the Hilton Group, Brixton plc, AXA, The Crown Estate, Marks & Spencer and Gazeley.
• The Real Estate Team is Legal Business Real Estate Team of the Year 2005.  It was also named "Real Estate Team of the Year" in the Lawyer Magazine Awards 2004, following its advice on the RBS/Canary Wharf transaction the highest-value property investment transaction in the UK in 2004.
• Revenue from Real Estate represents approximately 21% of the firm's total revenue in London.